Conference
10. Our Ocean Conference in Busan
From 28 to 30 April 2025, Busan hosted the 10th Our Ocean Conference, an international forum that brought together more than 2,000 delegates from over 100 countries to discuss the sustainable future of the oceans, maritime economics and ecology.
The opening session included a video message from Han Duck-Soo, Acting President of the Republic of Korea, who presented an interesting initiative on discarded fishing gear. Abandoned fishing gear is one of the main causes of marine pollution and President Han announced the goal of ‘no abandoned fishing gear’. Park Heong Joon, Mayor of Busan, spoke about the initiatives of Busan City, the largest maritime city in Korea, to combat marine pollution, including the first voluntary commitment to marine pollution targets by a Korean local government. Peter Thompson, the UN Special Envoy for the Oceans, spoke about the main challenges facing the oceans: marine protected areas, a 30x30 action plan for the next UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, in June 2025, which aims to protect 30 per cent of the oceans by 2030, sustainable fisheries, marine pollution and climate change. This was followed by cultural performances by the famous actress Song Ji-Hyo and a Haenyo choir (‘women divers’) as well as case studies on initiatives to protect the oceans. The keynote speaker at the opening plenary session was John Kerry, former US Secretary of State. He initiated the Our Ocean Conferences series in 2014 when he was in office and has supported it ever since. He emphasised the importance of accountability for commitments made, one of the main themes of the conference.
Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea had the pleasure of co-organising a session with UN-ESCAP, IUCN, the Ramsar Regional Center and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) on ‘Collaborating for Conservation: Protecting the Biodiversity and Ecosystems of the Yellow Sea’. The Yellow Sea is a habitat of great biodiversity and an important carbon sink used by millions of migratory birds every year. However, the utilisation and sometimes overexploitation of resources threaten the functioning of this ecosystem. All countries bordering the Yellow Sea - the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - should work together to protect the ecosystems. Although progress has been made in recent years, geopolitical tensions pose a major challenge to co-operation.
It was particularly gratifying to meet German Ambassador Georg Schmidt at the conference, who is representing Germany at a time when Berlin is undergoing a change of government.